How Broadband Has Changed the World (Part 3): A Look at Modern Day Internet Culture

“You are terrified of your own children since they are natives in a world where you will always be immigrants. Because you fear them, you entrust your bureaucracies with the parental responsibilities you are too cowardly to confront yourselves. In our world, all the sentiments and expressions of humanity, from the debasing to the angelic, are parts of a seamless whole, the global conversation of bits. We cannot separate the air that chokes from the air upon which wings beat.”

- John Perry Barlow | “A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace,” 1990

The last 20+ years of mainstream internet use has been leading up to this.

It’s everywhere. As the internet has grown and gotten faster, it has been shaking up every area of our daily lives.

The most recent headlines read big box retailers like Wal-Mart are shutting down stores, and all across America, malls, a pillar of the western shopping experience are dropping like flies. “Within 15 to 20 years, retail consultant Howard Davidowitz expects as many as half of America's shopping malls to fail.”

Now I’d like to remind you, dear reader, that ecommerce currently makes up 7% of all shopping – it seems to me, we’ve only just gotten started.

Here’s what it looks like for me right now: I work on a fully remote team. I can talk to a colleague in Estonia, get notes from my editor two time zones over, and deliver the final product to a client in Australia, without any regard for time or space.

It won’t occur to me that “making internet videos” for even a modest living has only been possible for less than a decade, or that media is doing its best to invalidate “internet celebrities” who are siphoning away ad dollars and threatening the traditional media establishment.

When I’m feeling bored, I’ll use my phone to search Etsy and buy something handmade from an artist I don’t know, or download a self-published book from a trending writer on the Kindle store — all without giving a second thought that I’m participating in an indie creator economy.

Tomorrow, I’ll update the backers of my Kickstarter project on the status of “The Freelancer Planner” and I’ll do a Google Hangout with my manufacturer to make sure everything is on schedule.

As I scroll through an endless stream of photos on Instagram, I won’t give a second thought that once upon a time this was considered fast:

Not one aspect of my daily life would have been possible 20 years ago.

Today, thanks to near-ubiquitous broadband speeds, we’re developing technologies to deliver the instantaneous experience of the internet in the real world. Services like UberRUSH will deliver your online purchases in hours, not days, and in select markets, the skies will be filled with drones delivering goods in minutes, not hours.

High-speed transportation companies like Hyperloop are breaking ground, which will have a substantial impact on domestic logistics and potentially overseas shipping.